How do I handle SDA Files?
Riccardo Rubini
I've found some files with the SDA extension. How do I use/open them?
Thanks,
Rick
Cameron Kaiser
>I've found some files with the SDA extension. How do I use/open them?
LOAD and RUN them. SDA = Self-Dissolving Archive
--
Cameron Kaiser * cka...@stockholm.ptloma.edu * posting with a Commodore 128
personal page: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/
** Computer Workshops: games, productivity software and more for C64/128! **
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Ron Slaminko
program.
-Ron
Ville Jouppi
wrote:
>Hi,
>
>I've found some files with the SDA extension. How do I use/open them?
These Self Dissolving Archives open themselves when run on your C-64 / C-128.
So load and run - it'll ask you for the rest. Two drives are a plus, otherwise
you'll have to put each archive on a blank disk and dissolve to the same disk.
--
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"I see", said the blind man as he picked up his hammer and saw.
Larry Anderson
It is an archive file that needs to be turned back into uncompressed
files, since SDA stands for self-dissolving-archive it should be a cinch...
Load the file and put in a formatted disk (or mount a disk image) with
plenty of free space and then RUN, it will uncompress the files into the
disk so then you can run them.
If you are running an emulator depending on the decompression coding you
may need to have full drive emulation on for proper dissolving.
--
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Tweel6526
>Two drives are a plus, otherwise
>you'll have to put each archive on a blank disk and dissolve to the same
>disk.
As far as I know, SDA's only work on drive 8.
-- Brian
Cameron Kaiser
>>Two drives are a plus, otherwise
>>you'll have to put each archive on a blank disk and dissolve to the same
>>disk.
>As far as I know, SDA's only work on drive 8.
It depends what built the SDA, since there are different types of dissolvers.
There are some SDAs that are smart enough to handle a two-drive situation,
though many more simply write to drive 8 without checking further.
Troy Heidner
<cka...@stockholm.ptloma.edu> wrote:
>It depends what built the SDA, since there are different types of dissolvers.
>There are some SDAs that are smart enough to handle a two-drive situation,
>though many more simply write to drive 8 without checking further.
This is a little off the original topic, but what program(s) do you
use to create SDAs? From your above statement, it seems that there
are several. Can you tell me what they are and where I could get
them?
Thanks!
Troy
Cameron Kaiser
>>It depends what built the SDA, since there are different types of dissolvers.
>>There are some SDAs that are smart enough to handle a two-drive situation,
>>though many more simply write to drive 8 without checking further.
>This is a little off the original topic, but what program(s) do you
>use to create SDAs? From your above statement, it seems that there
>are several. Can you tell me what they are and where I could get
>them?
There are header files you can attach to .arc and .lha (I think) files that
turn them respectively into (true) .sda and .sfx files respectively. I
personally haven't seen an equivalent for .lnx but I'm sure one exists.
.sda used to mean one of Chris Smeets' .arc archives that was self-dearcing,
but the meaning has obviously expanded.
There are also several utilities that just make bundles -- they don't do
any compression. John Iannetta, a name that used to be common here and now
has since disappeared?, created and maintained SPYNE, which was a particularly
clever .sda maker. Among other tricks, it could dissolve in-place on a 1541
(meaning you didn't need to have space for the .sda *and* its component
files). SPYNE archives have the extention .spy. I'm posting it to
comp.binaries.cbm now.
Two other utilities I like are Noah's Arc, a Gazette utility written by Daniel
Lightner that appeared during the General Media years, and SDA/MAKER, a
freeware utility that originally appeared with New Image BBS.
Videocam has a whole nest of arc/dearchivers and packers, sda utilities,
etc., under
ftp://videocam.net.au/cbm/unarc_unzip
Troy Heidner
Troy